our conductor

David Rutherford begins his tenure with the Pikes Peak Philharmonic this year having been involved in nearly every aspect of music – from performing to teaching, conducting to broadcasting. David is an award-winning radio music host and the morning voice of KVOD, heard in Denver at 88.1FM. He is also founder and Music Director of a new, non-traditional chamber orchestra in the Denver area known as UnStaged. David has served as Principal Bass of the Cheyenne Symphony orchestra, and Associate Conductor of the Musica Sacra Chamber Orchestra, as well as Assistant Principal Bass in the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also Director of Orchestral Studies and Music Education at Colorado Christian University.

David is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado, with a bachelor’s degree in Double Bass Performance and a master’s in Music Education. While at UNC, he was playing in six orchestras, was principal bass in three of those, and was the first–and to this day, the only–double bassist in the history of the university's music department to have won the annual solo competition. He was also heard as an announcer on KUNC, the local public radio station.

Since then, David has taught public school orchestra programs from the elementary through secondary level in Nevada, Wyoming and Idaho. During his tenure in Wyoming, Rutherford and his orchestra program were featured on a national broadcast of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, and he was selected as a National Teacher Fellow at the John. F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. There he studied conducting with Elisabeth Schulze and Barry Jekowsky, then Associate Conductors of the National Symphony Orchestra, as well as double bass with Bob Oppelt, Principal Bassist of the NSO.

In 1997, David moved to Idaho Falls, where he founded the Snake River Chamber Orchestra and served as its music director for its first four years. In this capacity, Rutherford has worked with such national and international stars as Craig Schulman (Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables), Cris Groenendaal (Phantom), as well as pop/country star Kenny Rogers.

When he is not involved in music, David enjoys spending time in the mountains with his family, hunting, fishing, hiking and other outdoor activities.